Kentucky clerk Kim Davis switches to Republican PartyLOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, a longtime Democrat, says she is switching to the Republican Party because she feels abandoned by Democrats.

Davis made the announcement while in Washington, D.C., to attend the Family Research Council's Value Voters Summit, Liberty Counsel spokeswoman Charla Bansley said Friday.

Liberty Counsel represents Davis in her legal battles. Davis sparked a national firestorm by refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

She was ordered by a federal judge to issue the licenses and spent five days in jail for continuing to defy the order, propelling her to folk hero status among some on the religious right.

She was elected Rowan County clerk last fall as a Democrat. She replaced her mother, also a Democrat, who served as county clerk for 37 years.

Davis could be back in court soon for altering marriage license forms issued to same-sex couples.

On Monday, lawyers for two gay couples and two straight couples questioned the validity of the new marriage licenses and asked a federal judge to order Kim Davis' office to reissue them. If she refuses, the lawyers asked the judge to put the office in receivership and have someone else do it.

"I have never once spouted a word of hate. I have not been hateful," she said. She also said the licenses going out of her office now, issued by a deputy clerk, don't have her authorization and are "not valid in God's eyes."

But Davis refused, citing "God's authority." That's when U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning threw her in jail, prompting a fierce debate in the public square about religious liberty versus the civil rights afforded to all U.S. citizens.

Davis' office issued marriage licenses while she was in jail, but the licenses did not include her name. Bunning ruled those licenses were valid and released Davis on the condition that she not interfere with her employees. Davis, a Democrat, was greeted at the Carter County Detention Center by a crowd of thousands and a church choir, flanked by her attorney and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

Supreme Court says "I Do"
But when Davis returned to work last week, she confiscated the marriage licenses and replaced them. The new licenses say they were issued not under the authority of the county clerk, but "pursuant to federal court order."

On Monday, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union wrote that the validity of the altered licenses is "questionable at best," and the new licenses bring "humiliation and stigma" to the gay couples who receive them. They asked Judge Bunning to order Davis' office to reissue the licenses. If Davis interferes, the lawyers say Bunning should place her office in a receivership for the purposes of issuing marriage licenses.

"The adulterated marriage licenses received by Rowan County couples will effectively feature a stamp of animus against the LGBT community, signaling that, in Rowan County, the government's position is that LGBT couples are second-class citizens unworthy of official recognition and authorization of their marriage licenses but for this Court's intervention and Order," the lawyers for the couples wrote in a court filing.

Kim Davis' lawyer explains her position
Mat Staver, Davis' attorney and founder of the Liberty Counsel law firm, did not directly respond to the ACLU's request for Bunning to put the office in a receivership. Staver said he would formally respond to the ACLU's motion Tuesday. But he noted that Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear said last week that the altered marriage licenses would be recognized by the state.

"Kim Davis has made a good-faith effort to comply with the court's order," Staver said. "The ACLU's motion to again hold Kim Davis in contempt reveals that their interest is not the license but rather a marriage license bearing the name of Kim Davis. They want her scalp to hang on the wall as a trophy."

In her Tuesday interview, Davis was frequently tearful, and she said that she's received hate mail, with people calling her Hitler and a homophobe. But she says she's not a hypocrite, despite her own four marriages.

"I haven't always been a good person," she acknowledged. But she said that she's been forgiven, that godly authority trumps all, and that she won't resign her position.

'I'm good at my job," she said. "I have friends who are gay and lesbians. They know where I stand. And we don't agree on this issue, and we're OK because we respect each other."

and I get the feeling she's liking the attention here and will do stuff to keep it coming
it's a rush--the same kind an ugly woman would probably get from having all kindsa different men
showing her interest

Well the Republicans always say "government doesn't work", they are correct now.

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The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it. - P. J. O'Rourke

The government just needs to get out of the business of marriage licenses.
Let the churches do it. The government can issue licenses showing unions for purposes of recognizing families by the government or property ownership and that can follow through to employers to recognize for insurance purposes or whatever.
I am not gay and I still don't get why gay people want to get married. Isn't marriage demeaning to women, so why do lesbians what to get married. And then you hear gay guys say they are married but they don't even live in the place and they say they are allowed have an open marriage. That's not really marriage. It will be interesting to see how gay divorces, especially those with children, are handled. That is really going to set some precedents. But I guess, being married allows you certain rights that you would not get as just roommates or in civil unions, like widower benefits, insurance benefits, wedding gifts,...

the whole God's authority thing is bullshit. Just quit your job, if you really value your beliefs.
She values that cushy high-paying government job more than anything. She never was religous before and obviously still isn't.
She is a woman who abandoned her kids so she craved some hero/martyr role to make up for it and this just fell into her lap.
Just quit your job and you don't have to be a part of endorsing gay marriage. If you want to protest it, lead a pack of local women in your church to shame any parishioners who are gay but when you are a government employee you have to tow the government line in this country, we have separation of church and state.